WWE1 and WWE2 grammar questions

[hs4ze]

We are working through WWE1 and WWE2, and today i came across two things that didn't seem right. Please clarify:

 

WWE1 W5D4 reading comprehension questions keeps spelling princess's

(chair, plate, bed). Shouldn't it be princess'?

 

WWE2 W29D2... is there a comma after "slaves" in the sentence?

 

Every Greek city was composed of a small number of free born citizens, a large number of slaves and a sprinkling of foreigners.

[TengoFive]

You only use the apostrophe with no s if its a plural noun. Here's a link that might explain it better. http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apostrophes/apostrophes-with-words-ending-in-s/

 

That comma is known as the Oxford comma or serial comma and is considered optional. Depending on where the original text was published, it may have been more proper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

[morosophe]

For what it's worth, I'm with you on both of these issues, but these are murky areas where it comes down to preference or training in a particular tradition.

 

First off: Ah, possessives of words ending in "s." This is one of those issues where, depending on what style manual you use, you could legitimately spell it either way. I've even seen some people claim that you can only leave the "s" off when indicating possession of archaic names! (Titus, Jesus, Flavius, etc.)

 

Similarly, what you see as a missing comma--the last comma separating parts of a list, coming before an "and"--is known as the "Oxford comma" and is considered dispensable by many style manuals. Honestly, it seems to be like a fad: sometimes it's in, sometimes it's not.

[jplain]

You only use the apostrophe with no s if its a plural noun.

There is no consensus on this point. Some style manuals say the only proper possessive is princess's, while other say that princess' is also acceptable.

[hs4ze]

Since both of these issues are not clearly defined, I'll keep the "Oxford comma" and princess' form in order to be consistent and avoid confusion.

 

Thanks!

[boscopup]

Thanks for the heads up on this one! I am a big fan of the serial comma, and my son would probably notice the missing one in that sentence. :lol: The sentence is from van Loon's The Story of Mankind. I'm a bit surprised that sentence was used, since FLL teaches the serial comma. Oh well. She was focusing on articles in that sentence, not commas.